LANSING -- Research published Friday by the National Association of School Psychologists from a Michigan State University education professor questions the effectiveness of the Common Core State Standards in teaching writing.

The paper, co-authored by MSU professor Gary Troia and a researcher from the University of Connecticut, calls current methods for teaching writing "abysmal' and says the Common Core standards do not do enough to fix the problem.

Troia's paper calls for changes to teacher preparation programs to improve writing education. “We need to re-orient the way we think about teacher professional development,” Troia said in an MSU news release. “We need to be smarter about professional development and make sure it’s comprehensive, sustained and focused on the needs in the classroom.”

The research identifies 36 teaching and testing practices for writing, but says only about half of those practices are actually included in Common Core, with not enough focus on spelling, handwriting or keyboarding throughout the elementary years.

“Federal efforts and research dollars tend to focus on reading, math and science, while writing is often left out in the cold,” Troia said. “We’re trying to point out that writing is really important and that we should focus more on writing so it’s no longer the neglected ‘R’.”

Because the standards do not completely address writing instruction, Troia argues in the paper that teachers will be forced to turn to outside sources to provide well-rounded writing education.

“When you look at writing instruction in the K-12 classroom, it’s still pretty abysmal,” Troia said. “Teachers are generally not adapting instruction for struggling writers and most students struggle with writing if you look at national test scores.”

Critics of the Common Core have highlighted the lack of standards related to teaching cursive writing as an example of a flaw in the guidelines.